Last week (27 Jan 2001) the New York Times quoted California energy czar S. David Freeman: "The stupidity theory explains most things; the conspiracy theory doesn't."
Similarly, at a recent Philosophy Breakfast a comrade (GdM) noted: "Never attribute to malevolence what you can explain by simple stupidity." (GdM speculates that this aphorism comes from some ancient source, but thus far I have not been able to find it on the 'Net - ^z)
And in Vol. 1, Book 1, Chapter 10 of The Wealth of Nations (1776) Adam Smith observed: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
Monday, February 05, 2001 at 20:11:20 (EST) = 2001-02-05
(see TruthInBattle)
(correlates: TruthInBattle, PoeticCompression, No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed, ...)